Colin Powell argues the case for war against Iraq at the UN security council in February 2003. Photograph: Elise Amendola/AP
Even before George Bush's re-election, the expectations were that Colin Powell would not stick around for long. Now those suspicions are seemingly confirmed as reports emerge that the secretary of state has told senior aides he intends to resign from the cabinet.
Powell, who once flirted with the idea of running for president, has been consistently on the losing end of foreign policy battles with the hardliners at the Pentagon, Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz. Although viewed favourably by European leaders, Powell compromised himself fatally by his willingness to go before the UN security council to argue the case for war with Iraq. He appeared before the council, complete with satellite photos to buttress the administration's case that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. But as we know from Bob Woodward's book, Bush at War, Powell was always dubious about the case for an attack on Iraq.
So why he did go along with it? The charitable argument is that he thought war was inevitable but he could help minimise the damage with America's allies in the aftermath. Less charitably, Powell can be seen as too fond of the trappings of power, so he swallowed his reservations. Still, he did come up with a lasting contribution to the foreign policy lexicon. Woodward quotes Powell as warning Bush about the so-called Pottery Barn rule on Iraq: you break it, you own it.
(Incidentally, Pottery Barn weren't happy about that phrase, insisting that customers are not charged for breakages).
